Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss (July 28, 1909 – June 12, 1941) was a prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...

 in the 1930s. He killed over thirty men using a variety of methods; shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial and strangling rope. Strauss never carried a weapon unless he was about to make a hit.

Most of his associates called him "Pep". In the 1930s, he was committing assaults, larcenies

Larceny

Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...

, and drug dealing. He was arrested 18 times but was never convicted until he was found guilty of the homicide that sent him and fellow Murder Inc. hitman Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein to the electric chair. After hitman Abe "Kid Twist" Reles

Abe Reles

Abe "Kid Twist" Reles was a New York mobster who was widely considered the most feared hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for the National Crime Syndicate. Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc...

 turned informant, Strauss was arrested for the murder of Irving Feinstein

Irving Feinstein

Irving "Puggy" Feinstein was a New York mobster involved in illegal gambling labor racketeering with Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Puggy had made the mistake of attempting to move into turf which was not his own. He was later murdered by several members of Murder Inc...

, and at least five other known murders. Strauss tried to avoid conviction by feigning insanity in the courtroom and on death row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

. He was executed in the electric chair

Electric chair

Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...

 at Sing Sing

Sing Sing

Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...

 on June 12, 1941.

See also

• List of individuals executed in New York
• Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
  
  

External links

• Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss at Find A Grave
  Find A Grave
  Find a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...